This Week's Stories
GG's quick takes on recent NYC news


Week of 16 July 2001:

Grand Changes
Because of construction work on the Manhattan Bridge, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Sunday will make the biggest changes in subway service in more than a decade, affecting some 600,000 subway riders. Included in their plans is a cut-off of service from the B, D and Q lines between Brooklyn and the Grand Street station in Chinatown, a move that community residents feared would isolate the station and render it close to useless. But local neighborhood groups formed the Grand Coalition to save the station. Yesterday Governor George Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver jointly announced a series of actions (such as a shuttle train between Grand and West Fourth, and shuttle buses to Brooklyn and Canal Street), to keep the Grand Street station active. The concessions would cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about two million dollars a year.

Another Subway Struggle
Meanwhile, another coalition, the Coalition for Safer Transportation, is collecting signatures to stop the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plan to close 100 of the city's 740 token booths this summer and replace them with MetroCard machines.

Health Care Behind Bars
The city continues to have problems providing medical care for its prison population. Yesterday, the Health and Hospitals Corporation fined Prison Health Services $100,000 for failing to provide adequate service to inmates in more than two dozen areas, from H.I.V. testing to infection control. The Tennessee company had been awarded the $314 million contract to care for 13,500 inmates at 12 city jails in September following disputes between the city and the previous health care provider. City officials told the Times they found no instances of catastrophic neglect by Prison Health Services and expressed optimism that the company1s performance would improve.

Accidental Tragedy
The Queens fire that killed three New York City firefighters on Father's Day was ruled an accident yesterday by law enforcement and Fire Department officials. The two teenagers, who knocked over an open container of gasoline that was ignited by a basement pilot light, will not face criminal charges. The fire killed firefighters Harry Ford, Brian Fahey, and John Downing, and critically injured Joseph Vosilla.

More Pedestrian Friendly
The city will widen sidewalks in the Times Square area by three to eight feet and remove several feet of traffic lanes. Mayor Giuliani will announce the plan in the next few days, but it is already underway according to the Daily News.

Confession
Yesterday, a priest, Joseph Towle, testified in court that a parishioner, Jesus Fornes, confessed to him in 1989 that he had killed a man. Fornes died four years ago. The Rev. Towle was testifying because two other men were convicted of the crime, and have been in jail for the past 12 years. An assistant district attorney argued that the priest's revelation of the confession was inadmissible as a matter of law and impermissible under church teaching.

Bilingual Plan Imperiled
"The Board of Education unanimously voted for a new bilingual policy conditioned on receiving $75 million to implement it," Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said yesterday, "but so far we have received none of it."

Harassment
The federal government is suing the Giuliani administration for doing too little to protect women in workfare jobs from harassment, according to the Times.

Transportation Delays
Three years after Congress handed over some $215 million for transportation projects in the city, some $70 million remains unspent, as about half the projects are the victims of bureaucratic disagreements and delays, according to Newsday.

Arrest
Sean Salley, the suspect in the killing two months ago of three people in an apartment above the Carnegie Hall Deli, was arrested in a Miami homeless shelter after tips from two people watching the TV show "America's Most Wanted."

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